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There is no doubt NASA's Marvel rover was a massive success. Since information technology touched down on the Red Planet in 2012, it has traveled further than any other planetary rover and sent a wealth of data dorsum to World. NASA was hoping to follow that mission upwardly by launching the InSight lander this month. Yet, an equipment failure in December cast doubt on the hereafter of the mission. The agency has but announced that InSight will get to make the trip to Mars after all, just not for some other ii years.

Different Curiosity, InSight (which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Estrus Transport) is non a rover. When it reaches Mars, it will set shop in one spot and commencement drilling into the surface. InSight is intended to study the inner workings of Mars, which would make information technology only the 2d planet to be studied internally; the first of grade being Globe. InSight has iii instruments to make this happen — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), Heat Menses and Physical Properties Package (HP3), and Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE).

The cause of the delay was the SEIS instrument, which is a seismic activity monitor that will be placed on the surface next to the lander. It'due south and then sensitive information technology will be able to detect slight movements in the Martian crust and even asteroid impacts elsewhere on the planet. This musical instrument will only work if it tin can maintain a vacuum seal, merely engineers detected a leak in December. With only a few months to go until launch, the mission had to be scrubbed.

Mars InSight lander, featured pic

Earth and Mars are only lined up for optimal orbital transfer once every 26 months. Therefore, even though it will only have a few months to repair and test InSight, it won't be feasible to launch until the next window. There was concern NASA would abolish the mission entirely because of the costs associated with extending the timeline so far. Happily, the agency has decided to proceed InSight going and is now planning for a May 2018 launch.

Engineers say a permanent set for the leaky seismometer has been developed, but the price of the filibuster is still unknown. A new version of the SEIS is expected to be complete in 2017. NASA will provide an update on the financial attribute this summertime, but it's expected to be in the neighborhood of $150 million. The next gild of business after launching InSight is the launch of the adjacent Mars rover, known currently but as the 2020 rover. The design of this rover will exist similar to Curiosity, but it will deport more advanced instruments.